It's true, but it also includes benefits and not only taxes. An American-level software engineering salary in Sweden is also probably twice that of the average software engineer, so you are going to pay a lot more in taxes than the average software engineer. That is because wealth transfers and income equality is Sweden's way to create a nice society. The problem is however that today an average salary, even as a software engineer, doesn't go very far in Sweden. And especially not in the housing market. You need wealth, which isn't taxed much by comparison. So in that sense your outrage is correct.